Whoops! I skipped right past Christmas.

Things have been so hectic these days, I failed to post some of the fun things we did during the Christmas holidays. We had family visiting from Omaha and Phoenix in addition to the kids who live here in Utah. Christmas nativity, decorating gingerbread cookies, elf visits, friendly beasts, etc. Check out the family fun.


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Who has this much fun without alcohol?

My family (ten siblings, spouses, my mom and three of her grandkids) spent New Year's week in Mexico. We had a real blast. Not only did we play tennis and hang at the beach daily, feast at the buffet, play games and lounge around to discuss everything!!!.... we also took the ferry over to Cozumel and boarded a catamarran for a snorkel sailing adventure. There were 26 of us on the boat, and about 20 others. Of course, any adventure in Mexico includes all you can drink beer and alcohol. We are all "sin alcohol" so we sipped sodas only. We had sooooo much fun dancing and singing and goofing around on the catamarran that our fellow snorkelers couldn't believe a group could have that much fun without being drunk. (Those imbibing the beer couldn't handle the marcerana on a shifting sail boat, believe me.) One of the grandsons, sixteen year old Talmage, commented later about his 50 and 60 year old aunts and uncles...."You guys are all CRAZY!" Even Mom (age 86 1/2) found herself carried ashore by a handsome dive team guy. Check out the fun.

Hmm...Which to choose?

I am working on Christmas calendars this week. I try to assemble some fun family photos taken in the past year and turn them into a colorful calendar to distribute to each of our nine children. It's a fun tradition as they have a different photo of a family member hanging on the wall all year round. The tough part is choosing the photos. What do you think? Should I use any of these?






Anyone who knows Whit and Ty knows
these photos need no explanation!

Shakespeare was so right!

The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath


It is twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.

Yes we are twice blest.

Two new grandchildren in November.

Kate and Jason welcomed Wyatt and

Dirk and Emily welcomed Campbell.

Both moms and babies faced some difficulties getting here, but they are doing well now.

Shoot, Steal and Rebound

Everyday at 3:45, Nelson rings my doorbell for some Hooked on Phonics drills. (How many ten year olds, voluntarily give up their play time to learn how to read in a new language?) No one makes him come. He just has an innate desire to achieve. After 45 minutes of word drills, we go out to the gym for another kind of drill. I figure any ten year old needs a basketball vocabulary just as much as the "I can chat, I can chop" stuff. So far we have practiced shots, steals, passes, dribbling and rebounds. He literally giggles when we play "steal the ball" from each other. We usually end up with a game of HORSE. He is actually a pretty darn good shot. We then go inside and write and then read a story about our games. Who knows? You could be looking at the first NBA player from Birundi. Fun times!

A dog's window on the world

Pretty cute story. Patches is an Australian Shepherd who lives next door to Emily's parents. They have a long-time relationship with Patches. Every day, when they returned home, they slipped a dog biscuit treat through the picket fence to Patches. In return, Patches offered them adoring friendship as only a dog can do and even barked once in awhile to warn them of possible intruders in the neighborhood. Boy, did they have the best of both worlds. Man's best friend for the small price of a bag of dog biscuits. (And no doggie doo doo clean-up duty.) Problem: the fence blew down and the neighbors put up a new one...except this one wasn't picket. Emily's parents missed Patches so much, they convinced the neighbors to build a window in the fence, so the doggie friendhip could continue. Now Chance is the one reaching through the fence with a dog biscuit.

"Kakee"

Just returned home from a Houston flyby to visit Chance, Dirk and Emily. New words are rolling off Chance's tongue everyday and this weekend it was Kakee. (All the grandkids call me Grandma Kathy and this is Chance's version.) It is so so fun when a little, almost two-year old decides that you are important in his life and gives you hugs and calls you "Kakee".